Long span arch rib buildings



8, 1956 R. L. COLBY, JR

LONG SPAN ARCH RIB BUILDINGS 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 9, 1952 mw wm INVENTOR ROY L. COLBY JR.

ATTORNEY Feb. 28, 1956 R. L. COLBY, JR

LONG SPAN ARCH RIB BUILDINGS 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 9, 1952 INVENTOR ROY L.. COLBY JR.

ATTORNEY Feb. 28, 1956 R. L. COLBY, JR

LONG SPAN ARCH RIB BUILDINGS 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Oct. 9, 1952 INVENTOR ROY LCOLBY JR.

ATTORNEY Feb. 28. 1956 R. L. COLBY, JR 2,736,397-

Filed Oct. 9, 1952 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 ROY I .COLBY JR.

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IN VENTOR TTORNEY United States Patent LONG SPAN ARCH RIB BUILDINGS Roy L. Colby, Jr., Dearborn, Mich., assignor to National Steel Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Application October 9, 1952, Serial No. 313,966

15 Claims. (Cl. 1S1) This invention relates to building construction and more particularly to a multiple building construction made up of two or more building sections.

Heretofore buildings of large floor area have been constructed by employing individual building sections such as single-story steel buildings of the arch rib roof type. The building sections are joined together in side-to-side relation to form a unitary structure. Each building section may comprise a number of units joined in end-toend relation. The size of the multiple building is determined by the number of the building sections of particular dimesions that are to be joined together.

In this type of construction it is wasteful to join the building sections as complete self-supporting structures and a single longitudinal side wall supporting structure is provided which functions as a common support for adjacent pairs of building sections. The side wall supporting structure of one of the building sections would not be capable of carrying the combned loads and it is necessary to provide additional supporting means. The use of additional column supports, which by necessity would be located in the central portion of the building, materially interfere with the usefulness of the building and reduces the usable floor area. It has been proposed to employ truss members for the central longitudinal struts to thus allow the use of a small number of column supports. While this arrangement reduces the number of column supports and provides a relatively large usable fioor area it materially interferes with the ceiling clearances. This is so since the truss members have a substantial vertical dimension. For example, the most economical truss design for this use includes vertically spaced upper and lower chord members joined by web members. The roofs of the building sections are supported on the upper chord members and the truss extends downwardly from the ceiling by an amount approximately equal to the spacing between the chord members.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel multiple building construction which overcomes the disadvantages outlined above.

It is another object of the invention to provide a long span multiple building construction in which the usable floor area is not materially interrupted with an abnormally large number of supporting columns and in which the ceiling clearance is not decreased by downwardly extending truss members.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a building construction including a novel arrangement of vertical supporting columns, roof supporting" rib members and tiuss components.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a novel truss for use in long span: multiple building construction of rugged design which may be easily manufactured at low cost.

Other objects and features of. the present invention will appear more fully below from. the following detailed description considered in connection with the'accomp-shying drawings which disclose a single embodi- "Ice ment of the invention. It is expressly understood, however, that the drawings are designed for purposes of illustration only and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, reference for the latter purpose being had to the appended claims.

In the drawings, in which similar reference characters denote similar elements throughout the several views:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic presentation of a multiple building structure embodying the principles of the present invention, the sections of the building structure being shown in different stages of construction;

Fig. 2 is a sectional illustration taken along the line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of certain portions of the building structure shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an isometric View of a portion of the frame work of a building construction embodying the principles of the present invention;

Fig. 5 is a broken view showing the truss member employed in connection with the present invention, and

Fig. 6 is a detailed view partially in section, showing another feature of the present invention.

With reference more particularly to Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings a multiple building structure embodying the principles of the present invention is disclosed therein including a plurality of building sections 10, 11 and 12 joined together in side-to-side relation to form a single structure. The building sections 10 and 12 include a series of side columns 13 and 14, respectively. The columns of each series are positioned one behind the other from the front to the rear of the section with proper spacing therebetween to adequately support longitudinal side strut member as discussed below.

Two series of central or common supporting columns 15 and 16 are also provided. The columns of both of these series extend in spaced relation from the front to the rear of the building construction, with the columns in the series 15 lying along the line of intersection between the building sections 10 and 11 and with the columns of the series 16 lying along the line of intersection between the building sections 11 and 12. As will appear more fully below, the longitudinal spacing between the series of center columns 15 and 16 is sufficient to provide a relatively large area of usable floor space. For example, in a practical application of the present invention the center columns are longitudinally spaced by forty feet. The side and center columns are supported on concrete footings, not shown, having metal angle securing brackets embedded therein for rigidly anchoring the lower ends of the columns by means of a welded, riveted or bolted joint in accordance with conventional construction.

Each of the building sections 1%, 11 and 12 includes a series of horizontal transverse strut members 17, 18 and 19, respectively. The building sections also include series of longitudinal side strut members 20 and 21 located along the edges of the building sections ill and 12 respectively, and series of central longitudinal strut members 22 and 23 extend in end-to-end relation from the front to the rear of the building along the line of intersection between the building sections 10 and 11 and the building sections 11 and 12, respectively. The transverse and longitudinal strut members preferably lie in a common plane corresponding to the plane of the ceiling of the building construction. The horizontal strut members extend transversely of respective building sections with their ends joined to supporting columns or longitudinal strut members. Also, the longitudinal strut members may be joined. to or be supported on the supporting columns in a manner described more fully below. Suitable knee braces 24 may be provided between the longitudinal and horizontal struts and between the-sup porting columns and the longitudinal and horizontal struts. The knee braces 24 may be joined to the struts or columns by means of connecting plates 25 and 26 and riveted, bolted or welded connections.

The vertical supporting columns, the transverse strut members and the longitudinal side strut members are preferably fabricated from commercial light gage structural steel stock. As described more fully below, these members, especially the supporting columns, may be made up of C-shaped steel channels secured in back-to-back relation by welding, riveting or bolting to form an ishapcd structural member. The longitudinal strut members 22 and 23 each comprise a novel form of truss member which will be described more fully hereinafter.

The roof construction of each of the building sections is of an arch rib type positioned transversely of respective building sections. The roof construction of the building sections is similar including a plurality of arch ribs 30 made up from a pair of arch rib members 31 and 32 joined together by a connector or rib splice 3-3. As described more fully below, the ends of the arch ribs 30 are supported on a longitudinal strut member with the arch ribs lying in parallel planes perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the building sections. The arch ribs of each building section are equally spaced, and it is preferable that corresponding ribs of the building sections lie in a common plane. In order to improve stability of the roof construction and utilize light gage structural members for forming the arch ribs, bridging members 35 may be employed between adjacent pairs of arch ribs. The bridging members are preferably in staggered relation as shown in the drawings, and may be secured to the arch ribs by welding. The roof construction further includes a plurality of purlins 36 supported on the arch ribs and running longitudinally of the structures. The purlins 36 support the roofing which may comprise metallic corrugated sheets 37 curved to correspond to the radius of curvature of the arch ribs. The purlins 36 may be formed from nailable steel members so that the me tallic corrugated roofing may be nailed directly thereon. if desired, the arch rib members also may be formed from nailable steel members. The sides and end walls of the multiple building construction may be closed only leaving the desired window and entrance areas. For this purpose the vertical studs itl may be employed for supporting suitable siding 41. The studs 40 may comprise nailable steel members so that metallic siding 41 may be nailed directly thereon.

As mentioned above, the multiple building construction provided by the present invention comprises a plurality of building sections with each pair of building sections having a common support for adjacent sides includ ing widely spaced supporting columns to provide an enclosure having a large area of useful floor space. For this purpose the longitudinal strut members 22 and 23 comprise truss members 50. Each of the truss members 5t) comprises a compositestructurc including spaced upper chord member 51 and lower chord member 52, and diagonal web members 53 joining the coplanar chord members. In the multiple building construction disclosed in the drawings, three truss members comprise each of the longitudinal strut members 22 and 23, with each of the truss members 50 supported at their ends by a center supporting column, such as the columns 16, and with the ends of adjacent truss members being supported by a single column. For reasons that will be more fully discussed below, the upper chord 51 and the lower chord 52 of the trusses are identical. Also, the trusses may be cambered for approximately the dead load deflection. The chord members may be fabricated from C-shaped steel channel members having coplanar outwardly extending flanges 54 and 55, and the web members 53 may by formed from C-shaped steel channel members not ineluding outwardly extending flanges. It is to be expressly understood that other structural forms may be employed for the chord members and for the web members. The web members may be joined to the chord members by welding, riveting or by any other suitable means. If it is desired, connecting plates 56 may be employed in joining the web members to the chord members as shown in Fig. 5.

The manner in which the truss members 50 are structurally joined with their supporting columns is shown more clearly in Figs. 4, 5 and 6. As mentioned above, the supporting columns, such as the columns 16, may include a pair of C-shaped structural steel channel members 57 and 5% positively secured together in back-t0- back relation by welding, riveting or bolting. The upper chord member 51 of each of the truss members is adapted to rest upon or to be supported by the upper end of one of the channel members 57 or 58 of the columns 16. In particular, abutting ends 59, 5% of the adjacent truss members shown in Fig. 4 are supported on channel members 57 and 53 of the column 16. The ends 59 may be welded to the upper ends of the channel members 57 and 58 and plates 60 may be employed to provide rigid connections. The ends of the truss members terminating at the front and rear of the building construction may be supported in a similar manner. The lower chord members 52 terminate in ends 62 cut to fit into the C-shaped channel members and thereby obtain a strong joint. Angle brackets 61 may be secured to the web portion of the C-shaped channel members for supporting the ends of the lower chord members as shown in Figs. 3 and 5.

The series of horizontal transverse strut members 17, 18 and 19 may be joined to the supporting columns in the manner shown in Figs. 3 and 4. As mentioned above, the transverse strut members may be formed from a pair of C-shaped steel channel members 63 and 64 rigidly secured together in back-to-back relation. The transverse strut members are joined to the column supports by use of connecting plates rigidly secured to the columns and sandwiched between the channel members 63 and 64. As shown in the drawings, connecting plates 65 and 66 are secured to the columns 16 and 13 respectively, with the channel members 63 and 64 positioned on opposite sides of the plates. The ends of the channel members 63 and 64 are secured together with the respective supporting plate by rivets, bolts or by welding. The plates 25 supporting the knee braces 24 may be secured between the channel members of the column members and the transverse strut members in a similar manner.

The horizontal transverse strut members and the lower chord members 52 of the truss members 50 lie in a common horizontal plane corresponding to the plane of the normal ceiling of the building construction. According to the present invention therefore, the vertical supporting columns 15 and 16 are of increased height with respect to column height ordinarily employed, such as the height of the columns 13 and 14, in order to support the upper chord members of the truss members in the manner described above as well as to position the lower chord members above the normal ceiling height. This arrangement allows the use of widely spaced supporting columns without employing truss members projecting downwardly past the plane of the ceiling.

As mentioned above, one of the objects of the present invention is to provide a truss member for use in a long span building construction of the type described above which may be manufactured at relatively low cost and which may be assembled in the field with minimum efiort and inconvenience. This object of the invention is accomplished by providing a truss member of relatively simple design including identical upper and lower chord members. In the past this could not be accomplished economically. When employing trusses of the type including upper and lower chord members it is conventional practice to load the upper chord members at the panel points. Since the upper chord members are in compression they must be capable of carrying larger stresses than the lower chord membersunder tension. Thus, in order to provide a truss including identical upper and lower chord members oversize lower chord members are neces sarily employed. Moreover, in constructions where loads applied to the upper chord member are spaced a distance less than the spacing between the panel points, such as when roof ribs are necessarily spaced four feet between centers and a truss capable of carrying the loads involved has panel points spaced eight feet from each other, it is necessary to further increase the size of the upper chord member or redesign the truss to provide four foot panel points. In any event it is not economically feasible when following conventionel practices to provide truss members having identical chord members due to the costs involved in providing the unduly large lower chord members or in increasing the number of web members.

According to the present invention it is possible to economically provide a truss having identical upper and lower chord members by applying the loads to be carried by the truss to the lower chord member. This arrangement reduces the stress in the upper chord member and allows the lower chord member to approach a reasonable size when identical chord members are employed. When loads are applied to the lower chord member displaced from the panel points, it is not necessary to overdesign the lower chord member since the deflection of an eccentrically loaded tension member decreases as the load is increased. In accordance with the present invention, therefore, a truss, including identical chord members of the smallest possible size, is obtained by designing and loading the truss in such a manner so that the upper chord member is stressed in the neighborhood of the allowable or working stress for a compression member with the lower chord member of identical size being stressed in the neighborhood of the allowable or working stress for a tension member. In view of the foregoing it is clear that the term identical chord members used throughout the description and in the claims is employed in a broad sense meaning that the chord members are of the same cross-sectional size or shape and are constructed of the same material and are identical in the sense they possess corresponding load carrying characteristics, such as the case of chord members cut from stock produced by one mill. The term is not used in a strict sense since, practically, it is a physical impossibility to produce identical members. The dies of a mill change as stock passes therethrough, and diiferent sections of the product cannot be exactly similar in all respects, but are considered as being of the same crosssectional size and as including the same structural properties.

In the multiple building construction provided by the present invention, the arch ribs 30 of the building sections and 11 each have one end supported on the lower chord members of the truss members comprising the longitudinal strut member 22, while the arch ribs of the building section 11 and 12 each have one end supported by the lower chord member of the truss members forming the longitudinal strut member 23. The arch ribs 30 may be supported on the chord members in a manner shown in Figs. 3 and 4. Since corresponding arch ribs of pairs of building sections are coplanar, a single arch rib support 70 is provided for pairs of arch ribs. The arch rib support 70 includes a fiat plate 71 secured to the upper surface of the web portion 72 of the lower chord member 52. A pair of rib connecting members 73 and 74 are secured to the plate 71. Each of the members 73 and 74 extends upwardly from the plate 71 at the proper angle to receive an arch rib; the member 73 extending in one direction outwardly from the vertical axis of the truss to connect with an arch rib of the building section 10 while the member 74 extends in the opposite direction to join with an arch rib of the building section 11, for example. The connections between these elements may be made by bolts, rivets or by welding. The other 6 ends of the arch ribs may be supported by similar means as shown in the drawings.

As described above, the truss members 50 extend upwardly into the valleyformed in the roof by the arch ribs of adjacent building sections. In this position the upper chord member 51 of the truss members functions as a gutter support. As shown more particularly in Figs. 3 and 6, the gutter formed between adjacent building sections comprises a substantially U-shaped member mounted longitudinally of the building sections. The valley of the gutter member 80 comprises a flat portion 81 which rests upon the flanges 54 and 55 of the upper chord member 51, and side portions 82 and 83 extending upwardly and away from the flat portion 81 at an angle to join the lower or' terminating edge of roofing 37. A moisture seal between the portions 82 and 83 and their respective sheets of roofing is maintained by means of a corrugated rubber strip 84 inserted between the roofing members and their respective sides of the gutter member 80 and are securely bolted together. If necessary, the gutter member 80 may be further supported by employing braces 85 connected between the flat portion 81 of the gutter member and adjacent arched ribs 30.

There is thus provided by the present invention a multiple building construction made up from two or more building sections. The building sections are joined together to provide an abnormally large usable floor area as well as an unobstructed ceiling space by employing a novel truss member and arch rib roof arrangement in which the truss member comprises spaced identical upper and lower chord members with the lower chord member lying above the ceiling and with the truss member extend- 1 ing upwardly without the building and being located in the valley formed by the intersecting roofs of adjacent building sections. In this location the truss members function as supports for the gutters between adjacent roof sections. The feature of supporting the roof ribs on the lower end members of the truss members displaced from the panel points provides for this position of the truss members and allows the use of identical structural members for the upper and lower chord members in which the upper chord member is stressed in the neighborhood of the allowable stress for compression members and in which the lower chord member is stressed in the neighborhood of the allowable stress for tension members.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been disclosed and described herein it is expressly understood that various changes and substitutions may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention as well understood by those skilled in the art. Reference therefore will be had to the appended claims for a definition of the limits of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. Building construction including a truss member, support means for the truss member, the truss member including identical spaced upper and lower chord members bridging the support means and web members joining the chord members and connected to the chord members at panel points, and loading members supported on the lower chord member and joined to the lower chord member at points on the lower chord member spaced from the panel points, the upper and lower chord members being stressed in the neighborhood of the allowable stress for compression members and tension members respectively.

2. Building construction including a roof truss, support means for the roof truss, the roof truss including identical upper and lower chord members bridging the support means and coplanar web members joining the chord members and connected to the chord members at panel joints, roofing ribs supported on the lower chord member and joined to the lower chord member at points on the lower chord member spaced from the panel points, the upper chord member being stressed in the neighborhood of the allowable stress for a compression member and the lower chord member being stressed in the neighborhood of the allowable stress for a tension member.

3. Building construction including a roof truss, column supports for the roof truss, the roof truss including identical spaced upper and lower chord members bridging the column supports and diagonal coplanar web members joining the chord members and connected to the chord members at panel points, roofing ribs supported on the lower chord member and joined to the lower chord member at points on the lower chord member spaced from the panel points, the upper chord member being stressed in the neighborhood of the allowable stress for a compression member and the lower chord member being stressed in the neighborhood of the allowable stress for a tension member.

4. Building construction including a roof truss, support means for the roof truss, the roof truss including spaced upper and lower chord members bridging the support means and diagonal coplanar web members joining the chord members and connected to the chord members at panel points, roofing ribs supported on the lower chord member and joined to the lower chord member at points on the lower chord member spaced from the panel points, the roofing ribs connected in pairs extending in opposite directions from the lower chord member and lying in a common plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the lower chord member.

5. Building construction as set forth in claim 4 in which the upper and lower chord members are identical and in which the upper chord member is stressed in the neighborhood of the allowable stress for a compression member and the lower chord member is stressed in the neighborhood of the allowable stress for a tension memher.

6. Building construction including a roof truss, column support means for the roof truss, the roof truss including spaced upper and lower chord members bridging the column support means and diagonal web members joining the chord members and connected to the chord members at panel points, and arch ribs supported on the lower chord member and joined to the lower chord member at points on the lower chord member spaced from the panel points, the arch ribs being in pairs lying in a common plane with the pairs of arch ribs lying in spaced planes perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the lower chord member so that the upper chord member of the truss lies in a valley formed by the arch ribs.

7. Building construction as set forth in claim 6 in which the arch ribs support roofing material and in which the upper chord member of the truss supports a gutter member joined to the terminating edges of the roofing material.

8. Building construction as set forth in claim 7 in which the upper and lower chord members are identical and in which the upper chord member is stressed in the neighborhood of the allowable stress for a compression member and the lower chord member is stressed in the neighborhood of the allowable stress for a tension member.

9. A multiple building construction comprising at least two building sections joined together along one dimension to form a unitary structure, adjacent building sections having a common supporting means along the one dimension, the common supporting means including a pair of vertical columns and a truss member bridging the vertical columns, the truss member including spaced upper and lower chord members joined by coplanar web members, and means supporting the roof of adjacent building sections on the lower chord member of the truss.

10. A multiple building construction as defined by claim 9 in which the roof of adjacent building sections includes arch rib members having ends supported on the lower chord member and forming a roof valley along the line of intersection of the building sections into which the upper chord member of the truss extends.

11. A multiple building construction as defined by claim 10 in which gutter means is provided for the roof of adjacent building sections positioned in the valley along the line of intersection of the building section and supported on the upper chord member of the truss.

12. A multiple building construction comprising at least two building sections with adjacent building sections joined together along one dimension to form a unitary structure, adjacent building sections including common supporting means along the one dimension, the common supporting means including spaced supporting columns and truss means bridging the spaced supporting columns, the truss means including upper and lower chord members joined by coplanar web members, and means supporting the roof of adjacent building sections on the lower chord member of the truss means of respective common supporting means.

13. A multiple building construction as defined by claim 12 in which the roof of adjacent building sections includes arch rib members having ends supported on the lower chord member of the truss means and forming a roof valley along the line of intersection of the building sections into which the upper chord member of the truss means extends.

14. A multiple building construction as defined by claim 13 in which gutter means is provided for the roof of adjacent building sections positioned in the valley along the line of intersection of the building section and supported on the upper chord member of the truss means.

15. A multiple building construction comprising at least two building sections joined together along one dimension to form a unitary structure, each of the building sections including an arch rib roof having one end of the ribs terminating at the line of intersection of adjacent building sections, adjacent building sections having a common supporting means along the line of intersection, the common supporting means including spaced supporting columns and truss means bridging the spaced supporting columns, the truss means including upper and lower chord members joined by web members, the lower chord members of the truss means being sup ported by respective supporting columns at points on the supporting column no lower than the normal height of the building sections, and means supporting the terminating ends of the arch ribs on the lower chord members of the truss means.

References Qited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,360,831 Drew Oct. 24, 1944 2,380,600 Lowenstein July 31, 1945 2,590,464 Raymond Mar. 25, 1952 

